Travel arrangements in another way
First one of her pants, than a thick pullover landed on Temperance' bed, where already other clothes towered up. On the floor of her bedroom lay an opened suitcase, in which a computer and a pack of books found their place. Temperance ran her fingers through her hair indecisively. She was standing in front of an absolute mess and looked morose at the laundry mountain on her bed, which she planned to put in her suitcase. The last time she had not been on vacation to identify remains, had been a family vacation. She had plunged into work since the disappearance of her parents, no matter if she was on vacation or if it had been a public holiday. When Russ suggested to go to a mountain cabin, she agreed within a second, but she had no idea what to expect not to mention what to do the entire day. Booth had not been very enthusiastic when she told him about her plans, but in the end he agreed that she needed some time off. She was a nervous wreck after all those events and new facts who took her by surprise after some remains in the Jeffersonian were identified as her mother. There was just a little straw missing that would break the camel's back and Temperance would be close to a mental breakdown.
"How is the packing going ?" Booth appeared in the door with two glasses of ice tea in his hands. "Wow", he said when he saw the chaos on the bed. Temperance gave him a warning glance. "You don't go to the mountains very often, do you ?" asked Booth with a smile. Temperance crossed her arms. "Well, I usually go on holiday to work and statistically there are less remains found in the mountains as in the cities or even in the desert. Sometimes the bodies even get frozen in the mountains over the winter and don't defrost before summer. But that depends on the height of the place where the remains are and how deep they're buried in the ground and..."
"Oookay, I got it." Booth interrupted, for which he earned an irritated look from Temperance. He gave her one of the glasses and surrounded the sitcase one time. The look on his face changed from amused to understanding and in the end to critical. "Anthropological studies on the oldest cultures of the world? Biological evidence for the Neandertal as the ancestor of Homo Sapiens ? Oh and this is my favorite" he took one of the books out of the suitcase. "How do I win the jury – from lawyers for witnesses" Booth said while holding the book up with a grin on his face. "You read such books ?...when you're on vacation ?"
Temperance put the glass down on the dresser behind her and went about to get the book back from Booth. "That's for work!" she said while she made a few steps towards Booth, who side stepped. "I usually don't have time to read them and I planned on doing so for a long time now!"
Now she was standing where Booth stood before and he was on the other side of the suitcase, because he sidestepped again while fidgeting triumphantly with the book. Temperance was laughing. "This is so childish!" But Booth just grinned even more. "But it's fun!" he said.
Temperance jumped around the suitcase towards Booth, who took flight immediately of course. They were running around in a circle like this for a few times, whereby both had to stop once in a while to recover their breath. But Temperance surprised Booth when she spontaneously changed the direction and ran directly into him. As she tried to pull the book out of Booths' hands, she still had that much swing that she practically knocked him down and he, who didn't expect that, lost his balance. Both landed on her bed. They were laughing and Booth wrapped his arms around her.
But after a moment Temperance embarrassedly averted his gaze. She didn not just land on her bed, but right on top of Booth. He noticed it, let go of her and took the book, which had landed at the top end of the bed after their collision. With the words "That's what you wanted" he handed the book to her.
Temperance cleared her throat and sat up again. "I wanted the book, not..." she pointed at him at the bed. Booths' grin became even wider, while she stood up again and looked away insecurely. She put the book back in her suitcase and reached for the ice tea on the dresser. Booth now got up as well and approached her.
"I think it's better if I go now, otherwise you'll never finish packing." he said with a wink.
"Seems so" she answered and removed a strand of hair out of her face. Booth indicated to hug her but decided not to do so when he rememered the embarrassing situation just one minute ago. They said goodbye with a formal handshake instead, which did not occur to them less odd.
"Relax" Booth said gently and looked directly into her eyes. She nodded. "And I don't mean by expanding your knowledge, ok ?" Anxiety was shown in his look. He knew how much she had to deal with lately and how good she was at hiding it if she was not okay at all.
"I know" she answered calmly and smiled.
Booth turned around and went for the door of her appartement. "By the way, I would bring a rain jacket!"
After she had closed the door behind him, she brought the glasses in the kitchen and went back to the bedroom to finish packing. But there was only one more pullover in the suitcase before Temperance sighed and sat down on the bed. "What was that?"
